is journalist ben farmer. ben, the attack is being described as, quote, complex. can you walk us through what happened? >> well, it does seem to be complex and ambitious. it began at about 6:00 local time this morning, just after dawn. it began with two suicide car bomb attacks, attacking the gate of the airfield. the vehicles were packed with explosives and driven towards the gate and detonated. followed a wave of suicide attackers armed with assault rifles, some also wearing suicide vests. they started to attack the gate guards and guards on the walls. it was a two-hour fire fight. during that fire fight, helicopters took off from the airfield to join in the battle to fire down on the attackers. the fire fight took about two hours, at the end of which all the attackers were dead. we believe there were about nine in total, including those in the suicide car bombs. now, the coalition here has said none of the attackers managed to breach the walls and get inside the base. >> officials say these three afghan soldiers and two civilians were killed on this base, which is located in an area that n
